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Feature: Behind The Elemental Abilities Of Spirit Hunters Inc.

In our second exclusive developer guide, Nic Watt explains the ability system in this spook-catching DSiWare release

In the previous feature Nnooo's Creative Director Nic Watt detailed some of the basics to Spirit Hunters Inc. In this second feature he will explain some of the more complex aspects of the player abilities, including some of the abilities which are unique to each element.

Each element has many different abilities. Some can only be used by players aligned to that element (you choose your element at the start of the game and can buy new ones throughout the game), while others can be used by players of any alignment.

There are also two main types of abilities: active ones (which you have to add to your ability bar and tap to use during battle) and passive ones (which are always on while you are that element). Passive abilities provide great bonuses like the ability to burn your foe, or generate charges of fusion.

Here are some examples:

Burn: All Fire abilities do ﬁre damage, but as a Fire player if you buy the passive ability 'Burn' many of your Fire abilities have a chance to also burn your foe. This means that if you hit them with a Fireball it may burn the spirit too. When the spirit has Burn on them they will take ﬁre damage over time in addition to any damage done by other attacks. This type of effect is called a debuff, which is a negative effect on the recipient.

Warm Heart: Warm Heart is another Fire passive ability which works in conjunction with Burn. Each time a spirit is burnt and is taking damage from the Burn with Warm Heart you will receive healing too. This type of effect is called a buff which is a positive effect on the recipient. There are more exciting combinations which you can take advantage of too. For example, some passive abilities apply a debuff to the spirit and in doing so make another ability become active.

Infection: Infection is a Fungal passive ability which gives a Fungal-aligned player a chance to infect the spirit each time one of their Fungal attacks hits it. When infected, the spirit takes additional Fungal damage every few seconds. When the player buys Outbreak and Pestilence it becomes really interesting.

Pestilence: This ability cannot be used until your opponent is infected. Once they are it will light up and this powerful ability can be used. By tapping, holding and avoiding your foe while it charges the player will turn the spirits Infection into a Fever. This Fever will slow the spirit down, reduce their stats by 25% and heal you over a short period of time. This is particularly handy for Fungal players as they are weak to a lot of different element types. By keeping Fever applied to the spirit they can ensure it is doing less damage to them than normal.

Outbreak: This ability can also not be used until your opponent is infected. Again, it will light up once they are and this time you can tap and hold on the spirit to charge up a powerful fungal blast. The more infections on the spirit the more damage this will do. The interesting thing about Pestilence and Outbreak is that although both will become active when you infect your foe you can only use one. When you use one of them it will absorb the infection making the other one become inactive. This means you will have to make a choice as to which one you want to use at a particular time.

Each element has one or more passive ability which interact with the other abilities within that element in an exciting way:

Fire has:
⁃ Burn
⁃ Flaming Rage
⁃ Warm Heart

Fungal has:
⁃ Fungal Spores
⁃ Poisonous Spores
⁃ Infection
⁃ Fever

Ice has:
⁃ Frosty Fingers
⁃ Reﬂection
⁃ Frostbite
⁃ Freeze

Light has:
⁃ Refraction
⁃ Blind
⁃ Fusion
⁃ Lightspeed

Shadow has:
⁃ Curse
⁃ Flee
⁃ Darkness
⁃ Slow

Water has:
⁃ Hiccups

In the next article Nic will discuss some of the other things to be aware of before embarking on a spirit hunting career including the different Elements, Resistances and some levelling up tips.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.